[lbo-talk] A Delphi worker on Delphi

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

> Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>
> >GM, Delphi, etc., *if* they lose their attacks on unions, have an
> >incentive to push for national health insurance; if they win and
> >bust unions (through lockouts) or cut unionized auto workers' wages
> >and benefits (through the UAW's concessions) to the level of
> >meatpacking workers', they won't have any incentive to push for it
> >AT ALL.
>
> Shouldn't the union be taking the lead on this, rather than hoping  
> that some dying industrial dinosaurs might? It's hard to imagine a  
> Wal-Mart associate getting behind the struggle of $100,000/year   
> autoworkers as long as the autoworkers' struggle isn't presented as  
> a broad class project.
>
> Doug

The top leaders of the UAW aren't interested in "a broad class  
project."  Given a chance, they would sacrifice Delphi workers in  
order to save GM workers, as Gregg Shotwell suspects, except that  
concessions to Delphi will only embolden GM rather than mollify it,  
contrary to what they hope for.

Autoworkers can fight back only if they manage to build horizontal  
communication networks among militants in different locals, networks  
strong enough to push the UAW to take on that "broad class project."

Anyhow, defeat of autoworkers -- especially a defeat as decisive as  
meatpacking workers'  -- will dim the prospect of national health  
insurance in the near future considerably.  To the extent that  
autoworkers and other industrial workers can sock health care costs  
to corporations, they give the rest of us -- including those of us  
who work for Wal-Mart -- political leverage to fight for national  
health insurance.  Their fight is our fight.

Yoshie Furuhashi
<http://montages.blogspot.com>
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